The Johnson County Sheriff's office is seeking reserve deputies to help supplement full-time staff.

Josh Gersten, a lead reserve deputy with the Johnson County Sheriff's Office, said the reserve deputy unit helps staff special events like the Johnson County Fair and Solon Beef Days, supplements full-time staff in the Johnson County jail and on patrol, and helps provide security during dignitary visits and at crime scenes. The unit has also provided support during natural disasters like the 2006 tornado and the flood in 2008.

"The department doesn't have very many deputies, there's 24 official deputies and they cover about 500 square miles, so anything that's a large manpower need, the department just can't staff it, so they use the reserves for things like that," Gersten said.

He said the reserve unit has 19 deputies. The department is looking to have 25 or 30 deputies total to fill the part-time, volunteer positions.

"We're not replacements for full-time, but we're supplemental to them, so we're extra hands," Gersten said, adding reserve deputies tend to work Friday and Saturday nights.

He said a reserve deputy should expect to work a required eight hours a month of volunteer time, in addition to about 20 hours a month of training for the first year as a volunteer. New personnel are asked to commit to a minimum of two years in the program.

The training is provided in-house.

More information can be found at: http://www.johnson-county.com/

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